Wong Kicked Ass
posted by
1970s Abraham Lincoln
posted
9/22/2007 1:53:55 PM
If you weren't present at Thursday's mayoral debate, go watch it right now. Lisa Wong didn't just win the thing, she raised the bar for Fitchburg politics. 
Until this point, it's been more about who you know and how long you've been here than whether or not you're capable of doing the job. It's such an institutionalized process that city insiders literally wait their turn to run for office. But like Dole in '96 and McCain in '07, being the guy who's been here the longest doesn't matter so much anymore. It's a new game, and suddenly, qualifications matter.
It was hard not to watch Donnelly's dispirited performance without thinking about Dole a decade ago, or McCain this year, or even Jack Lemmon's character in Glengarry Glen Ross, for that matter. Tom seemed incredulous that these upstarts had the audacity to run against him. He reminded the audience at every opportunity that he was a local, he'd been here, he'd waited his turn - so why couldn't they? Each round of questioning seemed to take a little more out of him. By the halfway mark, I think it was beginning to dawn on him that this was the death knell of the good-ol'-boy network.
It will take more than a single candidate to change the system, of course, but my hope is that Wong's candidacy will inspire other qualified outsiders to consider public office - and I suspect it's her's, too.
Tags: lisa wong, tom donnelly, ted desalvatore, ronnie james dionne, fitchburg mayoral race
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